Fixing the Problem, or Making it Worse?
by Elturi
Summary: Despite her shy nature Mio always finds herself as the center of attention. Everyone finds this personality quirk to be amusing but when their class decides to perform Romeo and Juliet it quickly becomes a problem. Can new friends help them overcome it?


Dear Reader's

This story is something brought about by general boredom and a mix of two of my friends interests. It is purely for entertainment purposes and isn't meant to be taken seriously at all. I will work on this in my free time but I don't think I'll be uploading new parts on a weekly basis. That being said, please enjoy this strange work of fiction.

Disclaimer: I do hereby proclaim that I own none of the characters, or the shows they appear in.

"We'll leave everything to you then Mio!" Ritsu had called out firmly as she and the rest of the girls headed off to take their break. This had happened only moments ago and Mio now stood alone as the sole waitress in this high class cafe. At that thought the butterflies in her stomach began to flutter with renewed vigor. She squeezed her hands together trying to calm herself and cursed her misfortune. Why was she always the center of attention! Despite her continued efforts to remain as under the radar as she could she always found herself being dragged up and put on display. This time was no exception. Class 3-2 was putting on a play, Romeo and Juliet, for the upcoming cultural festival and had voted on the roles for each character. Mio had practically fainted when the votes for the lead role had been tallied and her name had been attached to it, for all to see, on the blackboard. She had, of course, tried to talk herself out of the spotlight but nothing she came up with worked. So she was now stuck, like it or not, with acting as Romeo. However, it soon became obvious how truly difficult this would be for everyone to have Mio center stage. At each rehearsal Mio just couldn't perform. Her nerves didn't allow her a moment of calm and all her lines were read in a shaky, hushed voice. That's when Mugi thought of this so called brilliant idea of giving Mio "special training". So here she stood, legs wobbly and alone tending to the customers in this classy cafe. Thankfully there were only two table she needed to tend to currently, but that didn't stop her from chanting "Please don't let anyone else come!" over and over in her head.

Mio was brought back to life when a young woman at one of the tables made eye contact with her and called her over. Mio hurried to the table and squeaked out "How can I help you?" She tried her best to act calm but she could tell her nervous feelings were very apparent. The woman just smiled up at her and ordered one of the cheaper teas. Up close Mio now realized that this girl looked about her age. She had chocolate brown eyes and matching short hair that was cut even more boyish then Ritsu's. As Mio clumsily jotted down the order, the girl just smiled and told her to take a deep breath. Mio froze and looked at her, her cheeks growing redder. This was not the first time that one of her customer's had tried to ease her worries but there was something different about the way this girl had spoken to her that made her want to obey. "Alright." She stuttered and she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She left her eyes shut until her heartbeat slowed down to an almost normal pace. When she finally opened them she was feeling a little better and the young woman was just sitting patiently with that serene smile on her face. "Are you feeling better?" she asked and Mio nodded. She couldn't explain why but this girl put her at ease or maybe it was the fact that there were not many customers around. Mio decided she would take this opportunity to try to act like the waitress she should be and looked at her notepad. "So all you'd like is one cup of green tea?" she asked in a more steady voice. The girl opened her mouth to respond but before she could get one word out, the door to the cafe burst open and a tall blonde haired boy entered. His eyes surveyed the room and soon fell on the customer Mio was currently attending to. Her heartbeat began to pick up the pace as he strode over to the table. He wore a distressed expression as he reached the table and grabbed the customer by her shoulders and let out an unexpected wail "Haruhi! Why do you always insist upon leaving your father behind?" Mio jumped at the sudden outburst and almost fell over. Her nervous feelings were starting to return as this strange man had begun to yell, no cry out at this girl called Haruhi.

Haruhi's expression had changed to one of indifference "Stop making such a fuss. You're scaring the waitress." she replied to him in an uninterested tone. His eyes filled with tears and Mio thought he could start sobbing any second so she gathered her courage and quietly called out "Excuse me-" but she was cut off by another outburst from the blonde "You're so cruel to me Haruhi!" This surprised Mio again and caused her to leap backwards, this time she actually lost her footing. She flailed her arms trying to grab hold of something as she felt herself falling but she couldn't grab anything. She braced herself for the crash but instead felt a pair of long, strong arms under her, catching her before her body met the floor. She heard a sugary voice from above ask her "Are you alright miss?" Looking up to see her savior Mio was greeted by not one, but two faces. One belonging to the man who had caught her and the other to a small blonde boy riding upon his shoulders. She stuttered out an "I'm fine." Before righting herself and taking a step back away from them. The man who had caught her was quite tall and didn't say anything more but the boy riding on his shoulders jumped down and ran up to her. The small boy was about a head shorter than her and he took her hand and looked up at her with a concerned face "Are you sure you're okay miss? Your face is really red." he asked her again with his childish and sweet voice. Mio's cheeks darkened further and she couldn't look at his big almond eyes for much longer so she tore her gaze away from the boy only to find herself surrounded by tall beautiful men.

There were three new customers present, all tall and good looking young men. The first one she noticed had short jet black hair and dark brown eyes guarded by round rimless glasses. The next two were obviously twins with their features a perfect match. They had the same chestnut hair straight, styled bangs in the front and spiky in the back and the same light brown, almost golden, eyes. To her horror each of them had their gaze fixed upon her. The one with glasses seemed to be studying her with his hawk-like eyes, while the other two were looking at her with bored expressions. It seemed to her that they were all forming opinions about her and as her imagination started to run wild with the things they could be assuming about her she tried to make a protest but when she opened her mouth all that came out was a strange squeak. This odd noise had granted her the exact opposite of what she had been trying to achieve, every pair of eyes in the room were resting on her now, curiosity and confusion shown in every set. The blonde crybaby and the girl, Haruhi, had even stopped their nonsense to stare. "Um, Miss Waitress are you doing alright." Haruhi asked getting up, and pushing the blond away, to go to her aid if need be. Mio began to utter some words that might have been reassurances that she would be fine and to stop staring at her but it wasn't very clear. Then the small boy in front of her grabbed both her hands and smiled brightly at her and said "Wow! That noise was really cute. Could you make it again?" That was the finishing blow. With that line Mio felt herself grow to an unimaginable shade of red before she gave in to her nerves and slipped away into the comfort of blackness.


End file.
